Post by Electricity on Jan 3, 2006 3:10:43 GMT -5
Stock picture
I've used just about every viable hopper on the market, Empire, Halo, Egg, Revvy, gravity fed vl200 (everyone was a noob at one point...) and I have got to say, the new VLocity hopper from view loader is by far my favorite. Its lighter, and faster then anything else on the market, and some of the features are cool as heck. There are a few down sides, that i will get to later on, the most noticable however is the fact that these damn things are hella ugly.
Once you get past the looks though, these things are truly great loaders. To start off, the second thing i noticed out of the box (after the hidiousness of the damn thing) was how light this thing is. Its atleast 1/2 the weight of a halo or empire! After throwing the 2 nine volts, (and struggling with putting them in) I cut this cheese wedge on and imediatly thought that something was wrong. When it sounds like a car trying to start when it free spins. It also hums when its loaded with paint, because, in order to not enchroch on the Halo's pattent, they had to have the motor constantly spinning to keep pressure on the stack, rather then a spring (I smell a mod at some point...).
Its acctualy kind of cool, it lets u know that it's on, and its hardly adible. In a game you wouldn't even notice it.
I definatly like the toggle on/off switch, which is a lot nicer then those damn push buttons that always break!
The drive cone is deffinatly larger then a halos, and with only 3 fins, as opposed to 5, I assume it helps to fed faster. (same concept was introduced to the eggs, with the cutting of the impeller fins from 5 to 3).
I also liked the way the raceway was designed. While I'll miss my beads and spring, i think the plastic antijam roof thing (don't know if it has a name yet..) will probably work a lot better in preventing jams.
After comparing just the spinning drive cone to that of a halo, and noticing a differance, i decided to do a drop test. The vlocity emptied is 200 ball cargo atleast a full second before the halo dumped its 180 balls. Again, i was very impressed. After messing around with the settings a bit (i guess I won't really be able to review them until this hopper breaks paint, and i have to reduce the force a bit) on to the next test, how is it on a gun.
So I slapped it on my brand new 2k6 ego (merry christmas to me. From me
) and jumped in a game of the ol' speedball.Man was I impressed. Just the feal of the gun, the lightness, even full of paint. We compaired my entire setup, 2k6 ego, 68/45 crossy with charlton tank (2nd lightest 68/45 on the market) and loaded vlocity, to my friends DM4/halo set up, and found my set up to be almost identical in weight to his tank alone! (I forget the brand, but it was a 72/45 stubby of some kind).
Well, on to the final test, the gun in a game.
Once again, i could not have been more impressed. The hopper kept up like a champ. Even with the 18 bps constant my ego was spitting out (a little bounce, I'll admit
).There are deffinatly a few things that i had problems with, with this hopper, although nothing to dramatic.
First off, its ugly. I'm not going to lie to you, its only slightly better looking in person. 3rd party shells will deffinatly help, can you say Hybrid suicide shells!! But you can only put so much makeup on a fat ugly chick...
Secondly, the lid is deffinatly hard to open, and with a smaller mouth then the Halos, it takes a little extra aim to dump a pod into it. Once again, after the first few times reloading, I had no trouble with it, but I'd love to see an aftermarket body with a bit wider opening. The hopper is also rather tall, although, once the feedneck is cut (i haven't cut mine yet), its acctualy shorter then a halo. I look forward to cutting it, personaly..
Also, due the the wider ass-end, i kept thinking that the hopper was on slightly crooked. Which sound weird i know. But until you stare down at one, at an angle and realize it looks different then a halo, you won't know what I mean.
Don't get me wrong, none of the above mentioned things are all that bad, they just take a bit of getting used to (especialy the uglyness factor), and the pros vastly outweigh the cons. I can't wait for a rip drive (i assume it will be called something different...) to come out for this thing. Not that I ever used it one the halo/empire, but it was a cool feature non the less.
So anyways, every sense buying this thing (first person at Paintball Adventure Park in Tawnytown, MD to have one, athank you very much!) I've been telling anyone who'll listen how cool it is.
I deffinatly think that aftermarket parts are going to be a big bonus to an already fabulous product (sound activated board [or heaven forbid... Preditor makes their new halo/empire hibrid board for the vlocity... orgasm..], new shells, rip drive, delrin drive cone with guns dyed into it... ).
So, tell me what you think. Who else has one, who else loves theirs?
-E
Btw, once I take this thing apart, i'll post internal pix, for anyone curious.
